Sermon Central
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Christmas Told By The Prophets Series
Contributed by Jon Miller on Mar 2, 2011 (message contributor)
Summary: This message looks at the Old Testament prophets predictions about the birth of Jesus and teaches how God had a plan and still has a plan.
Christmas as Told by The Prophets
-Today we are going to start a sermon series building up to Christmas. We really don't know when Jesus was born, but the tradition of the church is to celebrate it on December 25th. Even though we don't know the exact day when Christ was born, because it wasn't as important to to the church in the New Testament as the death burial and resurrection. We do know that the virgin birth is a foundational doctrine to our Christian faith.
Because if Christ was not the eternal God revealed in flesh through the virgin Mary then we are still all in our sins
Today I want to draw your attention to verse 22 and 23, “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and they shall call his nam Immanuel which means God with us.
Matthew lets us know a very important truth about the birth of Christ
-For thousands of years all throughout the Old Testament God kept revealing his plan for humanity in Jesus being born
-This is very Important because the reason That God gave so much information through the prophets concerning the birth of Christ is because he didn't man to miss it
The Bible from Genesis all the way to the New Testament is about tracing the Lineage that the Messiah was going to come from and God keeps giving more and more information so that people would know when He came that it was him
Christmas is not about Jesus coming into existence, Jesus is the eternal God. Christmas is about God becoming man is what we call the incarnation, that deity took upon himself flesh and blood and became like man and the reason that he did that was in order to save us from ourselves because we were lost in our sin and separated from God. John said, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1
and then in John 1:14 he says, “And the Word became Flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
That's what Christmas is all about God becoming man. Not Christ coming into existence, he has always been now he became flesh that we might see him and know him and relate to him
In the book of Genesis God came to a man name Abram and told him, “I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Genesis 12:2-3
Abram didn't have any children but he was promised to become a great nation and through his lineage bless the whole world. We know that was because Christ was going to come from his linegage
finally when Isaac was born to Abraham God told Abraham to take Isaac up on the mountain and sacrifice him and when they are going up the mountain Isaac begins to get worried and he ask Abraham about the sacrifice and his father says, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering my son Genesis 22:8
55 generations later, 2000 years later Jesus was born in a manager in Bethlehem and Matthew begins the gospel by saying, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” Matthew 1:1
and when he went to be baptized by John the Baptist John pointed to him and said, Jhn 1:29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
And during that 2000 year span of time God gave us very specific detail about the birth of the messiah, the lamb of God
Turn with me if you will to Isaiah 7:14, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel.”
The book of Isiah was written 700 years before the birth of Christ and the prophet says here is a sign of the Messiah. He will be born to a virgin, and his name will be “Immanuel.” I know people today who have children and they don't choose a name until after the baby is born. These are two very specific prophecies
one is impossible to be fulfilled without a miracle but the Messiah had to come from the seed of a woman, not the seed of a man.
